It’s Magic What We Do: The Blues Poem with Junious 'Jay' Ward (Zoom)

The Blues, as a Southern music tradition, is revelatory and compelling. More than just discussing “sadness,” the Blues teaches us about resilience and reclamation through song and collective storytelling. We’ll discuss the origin of the Blues, examine lyrics as poetic works, and delve into our own personal histories for moments of reclamation that jump off the page via formal Blues poems or poems inspired by the Blues.

BIO

Junious 'Jay' Ward is an Emmy nominated poet and teaching artist living in Charlotte, NC. He is a National Slam champion (2018), an Individual World Poetry Slam champion (2019), author of Sing Me A Lesser Wound (Bull City Press 2020) and Composition (Button Poetry 2023). Jay currently serves as Charlotte's inaugural Poet Laureate and is a 2023 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, and is the 2026 recipient of the Mary Frances Hobson Prize. Ward has attended Breadloaf Writers Conference, Callaloo, The…